


Blood for Silver

by lizlazer



Category: Red Dead Redemption (Video Games)
Genre: Angst, Eventual Smut, F/M, Original Character(s), i don't know what to tag this with i'm sorry
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-08
Updated: 2019-02-08
Packaged: 2019-10-24 05:25:19
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,898
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17698484
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lizlazer/pseuds/lizlazer
Summary: Bounty hunter Maggie Lange has been atoning for the sins of her youth for nearly a decade. Banned from entering her home state of Colorado, she's offered the chance to return by one Agent Milton. All she has to do is bring in notorious outlaw Arthur Morgan alive.Majority of the story will take place during Chapter Three.





	Blood for Silver

It was a fine day in Valentine. The sun was shining, a breeze was minimizing the ever present stench of livestock, and Maggie Lange was finally making money again. After weeks of missing one bounty after the other, she’d finally landed a cattle thief out around Emerald Ranch. She stepped out the sheriff’s office trying to suppress a satisfied grin. It might only be fifty dollars, but it was her fifty dollars. With her associate off hunting down more leads for work, she decided she could treat herself to a bed and a bath at the Saints Hotel. She crossed the street and headed down that way, when two men in black suits walked up to her from the bank. 

They blocked her path, and Maggie stopped, crossed her arms. “Something I can help you with, gentlemen?” she curtly asked. 

“Why, yes, Miss Lange. I believe you can help us,” the skinny one answered. 

She rolled her eyes. “Look, I do not sign autographs and I do not enjoy having my photo taken.” Trying to push by them, the stout one grabbed her by the upper arm. “If you want to keep that hand, you’ll get it off of me.” 

“Please, Miss Lange. We are not interested in your celebrity. We merely have a business proposition for you,” Skinny said. He spoke in pleasant but restrained tones, as if suppressing anger. 

“I don’t do business with nameless strangers,” she said, looking them up and down. A bad feeling was forming in the pit of her stomach.

“And we don’t like to do business with convicted killers, but here we are,” Skinny shot back. He reached into his breast pocket, pulled out a badge. “I’m Agent Milton, this is my associate Agent Ross. We’re with the Pinkerton Detective Agency.”

Maggie let out a snort of a laugh. “My my. And what is it I can do for you?” She was interested in what they had to say, but that bad feeling grew more intense. 

“Let’s go to the saloon and discuss it over a drink. What do you say?” Agent Milton gestured back across the street. 

Shaking her head, Maggie said, “Sure. But you’re buying.” Milton took the lead, and Maggie followed with Ross behind her. She looked back at Ross, and said, “Do you talk or do you just lurk?”

“I’ll talk when I have something to say,” he said, tipping the brim of his hat to her. 

“I’m sure you think that makes you sound very menacing and intelligent.”

They stepped into the saloon, with Ross heading to the bar to get the drinks while Milton and Maggie took a seat at a table by the window. Milton removed his hat, setting it down and smoothing back his close cropped, oily black hair. Maggie took a seat on the opposite side, and resumed crossing her arms.

“Now, Miss Lange. We understand you’ve been working as a bounty hunter for quite a while,” Milton started as Ross returned with a beer for each of them. 

“Indeed. Although not working much lately. Someone was stealing up all the jobs in the area,” she admitted, biting her bottom lip.

“And do you know who was doing that?” Milton asked, taking a sip of his drink.

She gave him a puzzled look. “No. Why would I?” 

“I suppose you wouldn’t. Nor should you. Shows you’ve been staying on the right side of the law,” Milton said, nodding. “The man who’s been taking your bounty work actually has quite a large bounty out on himself.” He paused as if he thought he was creating suspense, but it just annoyed Maggie.

Maggie nodded. “Sheriffs tend not to ask a lot of questions, so that’s not too surprising, Agent.”

“I would like you to bring him to me,” Milton said, laying his hands flat on the table. “In exchange for this great service, we will put in a good word with governor of Colorado. You’ll be able to go home, Miss Lange.” 

Maggie stared at him, wide eyed. Her heart seemed to seize in her chest. “How’s a Pinkerton going to do that?” she asked, trying not to look as hopeful and shocked as she felt. 

“We are currently in the employ of a very powerful man, with quite a lot of business dealings out in Colorado. He would be more than happy to provide that good word, if you bring us the outlaw. You will also receive the full reward amount, of course.” Milton took another drink, his eyes never leaving Maggie’s face. 

Maggie took a deep drink from her own glass, swallowed hard. “And who is this outlaw that the great Pinkerton Detective Agency needs help nabbing?” She knew it wasn’t going to be something easy, an unruly accountant or some dumb horse thief.

Ross reached into his bag, pulling out a folded sheet of paper. He passed it across the table to Maggie. Gingerly, she unfolded it to reveal large black letters: WANTED DEAD OR ALIVE. Beneath them was a rendering of a sour faced man, with unruly hair and . His name was printed almost as large as the letters at the top, with a number underneath: $5,000.

Maggie, not knowing what else to do, started laughing. At first it was just a tiny chuckle, but it grew until it was a deep, loud belly laugh. The other patrons, few as they were, started to stare at her. Tears formed at the corner of her eyes, but she just gripped her stomach and laughed harder. 

“Something funny, Miss Lange?” Milton asked, the pleasantness gone from his voice. 

Maggie wiped her eyes, banging a fist on the table. “Oh yes. Intensely hilarious.” She looked at the poster again, the snarling picture staring back at her. “You’re telling me I can go home if I kill Arthur Morgan for you?” She had calmed a little bit now, but there was still laughter in her voice. “That’s either the cruelest or the funniest thing I’ve ever heard. Can’t decide which.” 

Milton closed his eyes, taking a deep breath. When he released it, his patient facade was back in place. “We don’t want him dead. We want him alive, for questioning.”

Maggie nodded, twisting her finger around the foam of her beer. “He’ll kill me first either way,” Maggie said. “That’s a certainty.” 

“Ye of little faith, Miss Lange!” Milton said, giving her a smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “How many bounties would you say you’ve brought in over the years? Fifty? A hundred? One man shouldn’t be a problem for a woman with your skill set.” He finished his beer, and set the glass down gently. His eyes narrowed, and paired with the smile it made Maggie uneasy. “Think of little Inez. I’m sure she would like to see her mother.” The sound of her daughter’s name lit a fire in her, but before she could say anything Milton stood. 

“Think about my offer. I have business in Saint Denis I must attend to, but you can send your reply there.” He and Ross tipped their hats to her.

“I’ll be sure to think about it, Agent Milton,” she grumbled, knocking back the rest of her beer. She watched them as they left, and when she was sure they were gone, she dug into the inside pocket of her jacket. Pulling out a photograph of Inez, she laid it next to Arthur Morgan’s wanted poster. For a long time, she looked from one to the other. Inez wasn’t smiling in the photo, her little seven year old self looking very serious, small hands folded in her lap. She was wearing a yellow dress that Maggie had sent her, covered with little pink flowers. Maggie’s brother had sent her the picture, spending his own money to have it taken. That picture was two years old now, but it was the only one Maggie had. She treasured it like nothing else she owned.

An unhappy memory came then, of lying in agony in a prison cell as a midwife pulled Inez from Maggie’s exhausted body. The tiny newborn had wailed with a fury, and Maggie desperately reached for her. The midwife cleaned the baby’s face and held her close to Maggie, but wouldn’t let her touch her. A little squished red face, with a head full of dark curly hair. The woman was quickly ushered out of the room, taking Inez with her. A doctor had come in soon to check on her, but Maggie knocked his teeth out and just screamed for her daughter. Funny how strongly she could miss someone she had never really met.

She looked back to the poster, at Arthur Morgan’s angry eyes. “Well hell, mister. I guess we’re doing this.” Standing from the table, she set her empty glass on the bar and stepped out into the street.

“Maggie!” a familiar voice called. Thomas Mayfield came to her, nearly running. He was dressed well in a clean green shirt and pressed brown pants, careful to stay to the side of the street so he didn’t get his boots too dirty. “Did you get paid for the cattle rustler?” 

Maggie looked at him sideways, but reached into her pocket and pulled out his cut. “Ten dollars, Tom. I’m not budging on that.”

He smiled and snatched the money from her hand. “I’ll gladly take it. And you’re very welcome by the way.”

“For what exactly am I grateful?” she said, starting towards the hotel once again. 

Tom eagerly followed her. “Well those Pinkerton boys found you, didn’t they?”

Maggie stopped in front of the general store, and turned to face him. “They sure did. Do you know what they asked me to do?” she said, smiling bitterly. 

Something about her face struck a little fear into him, and he hesitantly replied, “Bounty work?” 

She put a hand on his shoulder, squeezing a little too hard. “They want me to bring in Arthur Morgan. Alive!” she hissed, squeezing harder until his knees buckled and he whined in pain. 

“Okay, okay!” He twisted out of her grasp, rubbing the sore spot. “Who’s Arthur Morgan?!”

Her eyes widened, and she looked in all directions before grabbing him by his shirt and shoving him into the gap between the general store and the saloon. “Goddamnit, Tom. You wanna tell the whole town?” she whispered, furious and a little nervous. “How do you not know who he is? Jesus.” Suddenly she closed her eyes, took a deep breath. She realized she was being too hard on him. It was difficult for her to remember that he was barely twenty. “He’s a real bad man. Runs with the Van der Linde gang. Apparently he was just through here. That’s who was taking all of the bounties!” 

“Well shit fire and save the matches,” he breathed. “The Van der Linde gang…” He said the words thoughtfully, rubbing his chin. Then it hit him, and his blue eyes grew wide. “Them’s the ones that robbed that ferry in Blackwater a little while back!” 

Maggie nodded. “Yeah. And killed a bunch of innocent folk while they were at it.” 

“So… what’re we gonna do?” Tom asked, looking excited and scared at the same. 

“We’re gonna go get him, Tom. That’s what we’re gonna do.” She clapped a hand on his shoulder, smiling. “But first, I’m getting a bath.”


End file.
